What to buy in the US before I move?

I would advise to bring those little sentimental things over because they'll help make you feel more at home.  Photographs, ornaments, favourite books and so on.  Then I would say stock up on linens, especially towels.  There will be some things you won''t  know you'll miss until you get here.  For me, it was my set of Cuisinart pots and pans.  And don't listen to people (i.e. husbands) who say oh you can replace it all when you get to the UK. 

As for clothing:  although I'd lived in the UK before, I'd still forgotten about the subtle difference in climate.  I knew I wouldn't want my Lands End down storm coat but I forgot that down parkas are not always appropriate (like in the rain!)  I knew the UK is rubbish at things like cotton turtlenecks so stocked up on those, but why did I bring so many short sleeve tees?  And shoes/boots -- find the pavements here downright slimy much of the time.

When I moved to the UK in 1995, I only cared about taking my three-year-old son. We only had two suitcases. One was filled with his favorite toys and the other had a bunch of stuff his father made for him so he would still feel connected with his Dad (his father is American) and a few cold-weather clothes to tide us over before we could go shopping in Reading. That was actually hard to find since Houston hardly gets cold. But that was it! The fun, to me, of moving to a new country and starting a new chapter was going out and setting up my new home. It was all so different and it was interesting to learn what brands were popular or how they decorated their homes. I didn't particularly like the style but I found my own.

I returned to the USA in 2004 with my husband, three children and four suitcases and that was all. Again, it was setting up a new home in a different country and a different chapter. We ended up moving to four different cities in three states within four years of our arrival so it was a lot of deciding what was important. Stuff was just stuff to us. It's different from city to city from state to state the whole setting up house situation.

In three years time, my youngest child graduates from high school and we are already planning our return to England. We discussed at length last night about what we would be taking and we determined that there wasn't much to take. I have a few albums of photographs and a small box of mementos. My husband is a photographer so he would be taking his equipment since it's more expensive in England to repurchase but after that, there's nothing else really. I am looking forward to starting another new chapter of our lives and I'm also looking forward to making a new home. Things have changed so much in England since 2004 so I look forward to discovering things again.

One thing with all the moving is that I keep thinking I own a deep blue Dutch oven and I threw apart my kitchen to find it only to remember that I owned it in 1998 and had to sell it in 2004. My husband keeps insisting he has these Hugo Boss dress shoes but he hasn't had them since 2006.

I have actually bought bedding at Marks & Spencer with me, from the UK, to the US. 

At the moment though all our bedding is from IKEA.  Which of course you can get both sides of the pond. 

I think the biggest challenge for me is just knowing the right place to go to find quality items at a good price. At home, I instinctively know where to go to purchase a particular kind of item. Even after living in London for several years, I still felt like I didn't have a good grasp on shopping there. Although I suppose that could be because I was in London and was limited to places I could access via public transportation. Every store I came across was either expensive boutiques or large department stores. I feel like there must be a middle ground, such as Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel, etc in the States, but I just don't know what they are. My fiance is not a shopper so he's not much help. I've asked his family for recommendations and always get John Lewis, Debenhams and Lakeland. Surely there must be more alternatives.

I may catch hell for this, but I find Argos can be useful.

I tend to use IKEA as a go to nowadays. Disclaimer on that though as my husband works for them.




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Eons ago we bought some furniture from antique dealers (junk shops!)  Other stuff came from Habitat (pre-Ikea), Marks and Spencer.  MultiYork for living room sofa/chairs.
But I'm in the dark now myself.  Got some kitchen equipment from Waitrose, Wilko, Lakeland, even Sainsburys.  Clas Ohlson is pretty good for odds and ends.  Just now trying to solve the problem of curtains/blinds for very tall bay windows.  Everything is soooo expensive.

There's a store rather like IKEA called JYSK (jay why es kay) here that we've gone to for some bits and bobs. It's Scandinavian as well and often has inexpensive pillows, throw blankets, clocks, and all that jazz for a decent price and quality. I got my desk there. I haven't found anywhere I like for fun bedding, everything is so... not what I want. And to be fair, Tesco has rather nice table stuff, if you go to a Tesco Extra at least.

Since moving to the UK, I pretty much exclusively shop at Costco.   

We married in the US last year. Hubs didn't want a wedding registry and with me moving, money was the most practical option for gifts. We just transferred it all to my UK account (darn exchange rate).

In general, stores here just don't have the same large selection as the stores back home. I really miss Target! For homewares, I've bought a ton of things from Dunelm (similar to Bed Bath and Beyond). I've found their selection to be pretty good. TK(J) Maxx is good for home decor items and trinkets. But like TJ Maxx in the US, it just depends on what their stock is like for the day- it can be a hit or miss. I also like Lakeland for kitchen stuff.

I too struggled to find a nice formal dinnerware set, and the ones at the department stores were overpriced. I finally found a set on Amazon. It's not a name brand or anything, but it's great quality and looks lovely. I was impressed!

I moaned about not having my Cuisinart stainless pots and pans so much DH ordered two pots online (I forget whose they were).  They're nice and heavy -- but the bigger one is really too heavy for me to heft.  In the end, our lad went out and got another set of the Cuisinart pots (from Wegman's) as he is using my original ones and talked DH into stuffing them into his luggage coming back!

(Sometimes sons get it better than husbands)

There is a brand of stainless cookware in the UK called Stellar that rivals Cuisinart.  They also manufacture flatware.

Just thought of something I often wish I had:  fabric place mats.  Something about those hard wooden or plastic things they have here makes me uncomfortable.  Wish I had some fabric ones in a cheery colourful print.

Pans and towels.  We just spent months attempting to replace our pans and every time we thought we found something it was either ungodly expensive or in the US.

Other than that we've done really well with finding household items in Britain.  Our bedding is from TKMaxx, duvets from M&S, tableware is Denby (love it!), glassware from John Lewis, and cutlery is from Crate & Barrel but wish it wasn't, it's terrible!  I refused to have the weird place settings I could find in the UK so insisted on US cutlery and wish I hadn't

I miss Target, husband doesn't understand why but there's just no UK equivalent I can find.

  I refused to have the weird place settings I could find in the UK

What do you mean by weird place settings?